Preliminary Steps for Neighboring

Now that you have assessed organizational capacity and interest in bringing Neighboring to your community, here are the preliminary steps to help you get started. The most important thing to note here is that these are suggestive steps, not prescribed, and do not need to be completed in a particular chronological order. You and your community will determine together what steps to take and at what time. Keep in mind throughout the process that Neighboring is a framework and that your primary source of volunteers should be from the under-resourced community that the project will serve.

Identify a neighborhood

• Identify a community in your city that can benefit from asset- and empowerment-based service.

• Look at which neighborhoods have projects with resident involvement emerging or already under way.

• Find out what other organizations are already operating there.

• Evaluate the challenges faced by other organizations that try to go into low-income communities for volunteer initiatives.

• Be specific in defining your Neighboring community; starting small often is the best approach.

Explore your organization’s motives for partnering with the community.

• What goals or anticipated outcomes are you pursuing through partnership?

• What do you hope to gain?

• Why is it important that you establish a partnership?

• What is your long-term commitment to the neighborhood?

• What assets do you offer?

• How can you add value to the community’s work?

Build trusting relationships with leaders and residents.

• Learn about and understand the community’s history.

• Ask them what issues they face.

• Find out how and by whom volunteering happens within the community.  

• Get to know both leaders and residents; respect and acknowledge the leaders, but also find out community perception of the leaders.

• Let residents know you care.

• Identify and meet with local stakeholders; determine their interest in partnering and identify synergies for shared outcomes.

Learn how members come together to address issues and concerns.

• Meet with key community leaders, or invite community representatives to forums where they can participate and learn about resources for the neighborhood.

• Listen to residents’ voices.

• Develop connections with leaders and residents that foster sustainable activities to address the issues they want to work on in their community.

Identify potential partners.

• Determine which other organizations or individuals in the community to involve in the partnership.

• Determine which partners are essential to the success of the project.

• Include residents and leaders to serve in a planning and decision-making capacity

• Involve the local volunteer center.

• Determine which businesses in the community have an interest in the neighborhood.

• Find out if the community foundation is involved.

• Find out which, if any, other organizations already work with the community.

Establish a partnership plan with a realistic timeline and expectations.

• Develop a shared understanding of the partnership and what you hope to achieve together.

• Decide how each partner will contribute to the overall action plan and, ultimately, to its success.

• Communicate and manage expectations.

• Determine what is required to build a trusting relationship with the community and its leaders and how this will impact your timeline.

Understand the characteristics of an effective partnership

• View the community, its leaders, and its residents as partners, not as clients.

• Develop clear outcomes and roles jointly, with community input.

• Maintain a shared vision; neither impose your views, ideals, and expectations on the community nor allow them to do that to you.

• Understand and respect differing perspectives and diverse voices.

• Be flexible, have patience, and realize that neighborhood efforts take time.

• Extend your resources to help build and enhance the community.

• Help the neighborhood see the benefits of connecting with services that exist along the margins of the community—local services, programs, and providers.

• Have a positive relationship with the community and maintain a continued presence.

• Provide project leader training.

Expect and plan for setbacks

• Identify the likely challenges and barriers that may influence the partnership’s success.

• How will you deal with changes in key project personnel or community leaders?

• What financial and other resources must be secured?

HandsOn Network offers three training curricula that can be beneficial in training partners and community members.

For more information, contact training@pointsoflight.org.